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Brainwave-controlled cat tails for humans move according to moods

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The Japanese company that gave us mind-controlled cat ears has upped the ante with a new line of detachable cat tails for humans that move according to a wearer's mood.

While projects such as Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment continue to work on the possibility of giving the world mind-controlled avatars, Neurowear is busily bringing the technology into the mainstream, publicising it as a fashion statement and a social tool.

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The white fluffy prototype appendage known as Shippo (the same name as the tailed demon fox boy in the anime InuYasha), works in a similar fashion to the Necomimi ears. Using a series of sensors, it picks up and translates a wearer's heart rate and brainwave activity into movement. Its range of motion includes a side to side swish and an up and down bounce, both of which can speed up according to the intensity of a particular mood.

From the look of the company's promotional video (above), it seems an excited wearer evokes the best reaction -- a jaunty left, right swish that lets the public know I'm pretty chuffed right now.

Neurowear goes a step further, and synchs this reaction to your social networks via a smartphone app. The app picks up mood changes, and sends out an update to your friends. Using the geotagging option, the location your particularly happy moment occurred can also be sent out and, equally, user's can tap in to find out where other Shippo-wearers' happy places are and head there to share the good vibes.

The idea is the whole network of wearers becomes an online community, sharing locations that are particularly fun/relaxing/tail-wagging thrilling. Although the product will no doubt turn out to be a bestseller, Wired.co.uk would like to see a few more cat-like emotions integrated into the design technology, including a suitably aggressive straight-up-in-the-air terror poise. So far, wearers look a bit more like happy puppies than moody cats from the series of jaunty tail expressions on show.

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The product might not have a patch on experiments like MIT's Ed Boyden's mouse mind control (designed to help in the study of epilepsy and Alzheimer's). However, in the long run, it will probably be a pretty effective way of popularising the technology.

Commercialising it like this --making it fun, social and part of popular culture -- will probably go a long way in convincing the public subconscious that avatars are a great idea and to be welcomed with open arms.